Better Late than Never - Jewish Socialists Group Finally Supports Jackie Walker

Unfortunately the statement is extremely weak and it fails to come to terms with Jewish racism

Well it was a long time coming and followed a particularly tetchy response by David Rosenberg to queries by Debbie Fink as to why the JSG was not supporting Jackie Walker.  Our questions were reasonable ones to ask of a group that calls itself socialist.  Why, when the Jewish Labour Movement, the British wing of the racist Israeli Labour Party, had engineered Jackie's suspension from the Labour Party, had the JSG said nothing about either that or Jon Lansman, who was a JSG member and who had been actively complicit in the campaign against Jackie? The latter question is still unanswered.

Gideon Falter - Racist Chair of the racist 'charity' Campaign Against Antisemitism and Trustee/Director of the Jewish National Fund UK, who has been spearheading the attack on Jackie Walker and other anti-Zionists

It would be easy for this blog to claim credit for the fact that we have embarrassed the JSG leadership into finally, reluctantly agreeing to write to the Labour Party supporting Jackie Walker.  However this is a pyrrhic victory in many ways.

i.           The JSG have not publicised their support for Jackie.

ii.          The JSG have not disowned Lansman

iii.         The JSG have still treated aspects of the ‘anti-Semitism witch-hunt’ as bona fide rather than as a disgusting racist witch-hunt of Black and Asian people.

The racist nature of the witch-hunt has been largely ignored.  We can see this in the disgusting attacks on Malaka Mohammed by the McCarthyite Campaign Against Antisemitism.  [see Character assassination as a tool to silence a Palestinian activist].  Malakha is a student from Gaza at Exeter University who has been subject to the same character assassination by the CAA as many other people.  She is someone who has experienced  particular traumas as a result of her experiences at the hands of a self-declared 'Jewish' state.   

Character assassination as a tool to silence a Palestinian activi - See more at: http://mondoweiss.net/2017/03/character-assassination-palestinian/#sthash.s74QmIp7.dpuf

Character assassination as a tool to silence a Palestinian activi - See more at: http://mondoweiss.net/2017/03/character-assassination-palestinian/#sthash.s74QmIp7.dpuf

For a long time the JSG has basked in the golden warmth of a Jewish group seen to say the right things and make the right noises on Israel in progressive circles whilst rarely getting its hands dirty.  It has largely remained absent from the fight for BDS, against Zionism and for Palestine solidarity in this country, apart from carrying its banner at different demonstrations.  It has in particular failed to understand that much of what is called 'anti-Semitism' is a product of the fact that the role of the organised Jewish community institutions and its representatives in this country has been to undermine the Palestine solidarity movement.  

Ian Saville speaking in May 2016 at a Momentum/LRC meeting in Brighton in support of Jackie (pictured)

Despite having a nominally good position on the false anti-Semitism campaign in practice the JSG have not contributed to the campaign.  The first reaction of Dave Rosenberg to questions about what its position on Jackie was that such inquiries were:

‘‘based on ignorance and vituperation, they were not worth responding to. The JSG is solely accountable to its members, not to you, nor to FSOI, nor to any other groups we may or may not be connected with or work with.’ 

Realising that this was hardly adequate, David then issued a ‘Statement of Clarification re Debbie Fink’s questions re JSG, Jews for Jeremy, and John Lansman. This is for information. We won’t be making further comment on this matter as we have more important work to do.’

David Rosenberg - has issued the JSG's a succession of statements concerning the JSG's position on the witch hunt

Unfortunately the 'Statement of Clarification' was anything but clear.  Apart from informing us that 'Our group is anti-Zionist but does not go in for gratuitous and childish demonisation of those who identify as Zionists', which in practice has meant avoiding the subject altogether and defending its removal of critics from both the JSG's own Facebook page and that of Jews for Jeremy it said very little.

David wrote that 'we have, reluctantly, had to block people for misusing our page by posting anti-Corbyn material, abusive sectarian political material, or re-posting material by those who they know have been blocked from the page. [me!] It is for these reasons that J4J collectively decided to block Debbie Fink.'  It would be churlish to even try to unpick this but J4J has never decided anything 'collectively' unless that means David, Julia and Ian Saville having a conversation!

The inadequacy of this statement meant that despite saying it was the last word on the subject, it clearly wasn't, thus why the statement below was issued.  It seems however that the JSG have decided to keep its circulation to the minimum. It is titled ‘For information (and to dispel misinformation which continues to be put about)’ which makes it clear that its purpose is not one of solidarity but an attempt to protect the JSG's reputation.

The first paragraph is unexceptionable but it really doesn’t seem to grasp the magnitude of the problem, as the Al Jazeera programmes ‘The Lobby illustrated.  What we have seen is an exercise in state-sponsored destabilisation of the Labour Party and we are also witnessing a wholesale attack on the Palestine solidarity movement using the weapon of 'anti-Semitism'

Julia Bard - has been the policewoman of both the JSG and J4J Facebook groups removing anyone who dissented from or criticised the JSG's refusal to speak up over the racist witch-hunt of Jackie Walker

Julia Bard's instruction to JSG anti-racist activist Ruth Appleton not to associate the JSG with opposition to Lansman's witch-hunt of Jackie Walker - it has taken nearly 5 months for the JSG to make up their mind

The statement says that ‘there are a small number of cases of genuine antisemitism expressed by Labour party members that the Party must deal with firmly’.  I have seen no expressions of explicit anti-Semitism or Holocaust denial.  Where people have expressed themselves clumsily using anti-Semitic language or concepts this is entirely due to the fact that the Zionist propaganda campaign deliberately conflates the Jewish community and Israel.  It is not surprising that if you consistently associate Jews with Israeli war crimes and tell people that to oppose Zionism or support the Palestinians is anti-Semitic, that some people, very few, will make that false choice and take them at their word. 

For example I picked up a comrade in Brighton who attended a Momentum meeting for his belief that the Rothchilds were behind the dirty tricks campaigns and the anti-Semitism witch-hunt.  The person concerned was not in any way anti-Jewish or hostile and he would have been horrified to be accused of anti-Semitism.  Nonetheless he had imbibed this particular piece of nonsense, as have a number of other people, as a way of explaining the powerful attack by the Zionists on people like Jackie.

Jeremy Newmark of the Jewish Labour Movement has worked in close collaboration with the Israeli Embassy in furthering the 'anti-Semitism' witch-hunt

The present campaign, led by the Jewish Labour Movement and the Campaign Against Anti-Semitism to tar all Palestine solidarity work with the brush of anti-Semitism is nothing less than a defence of white privilege and racism.  That is the meaning of an alliance that includes  Theresa May, Eric Pickles, figures on the Labour Right such as Chuka Ummuna and Tom Watson, Jeremy Newmark of the JLM and Gideon Falter of the CAA.  I classify someone like C Ummuna as White politically. Included for example in the dossier against Jackie Walker is a statement of condemnation by five figures from the Zionist community including Gideon Falter of the CAA, an out and out racist who is a trustee of the Jewish National Fund.    

This alliance also includes the Police establishment who have happily adopted the Zionists' IHRA definition of anti-Semitism.  It is a campaign that carries the full support of the British state and unfortunately Jeremy Corbyn.  Corbyn’s support for the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism is disgraceful and should have been called out long before.  Corbyn’s acceptance of the IHRA definition and the legitimacy of the false anti-Semitism campaign is a weapon that will  and has been used against him.   

Free Speech of Israel picket of Momentum meeting where Jon Lansman, a JSG member, moved the removal of Jackie Walker as Momentum Vice Chair - JSG statement doesn't mention Lansman's role

To try to suppress criticism of Corbyn on this and other matters does not strengthen, it weakens the Corbyn leadership.  In the 'Statement of Clarification' David Rosenberg wrote that 

'The J4J page is NOT a place for those who wish to attack, disparage, abuse or insult Corbyn and the political stance he represents.... On a very few occasions since then we have, reluctantly, had to block people for misusing our page by posting anti-Corbyn material,'

What that means in practice is that as Corbyn has retreated over Zionism and Palestine, going along with the witch hunt whilst assuring people that he himself is not anti-Semitic, it has been impossible on the J4J FB page to criticise him because the whole political purpose of the page, as defined by a small coterie of JSG leaders, is to engage in nothing more than sycophantic adulation of Corbyn.  Regardless of whether his going along with the anti-Semitism witch hunt is actually harming his position, no one is allowed to criticise this.  It has meant that there has been no pushback in a group that could have been influential.  J4J could have put to Corbyn that the 'anti-Semitism' that Falter, Arkush and co. was talking about had nothing to do with discrimination against or hostility to Jews as Jews.

The campaign around the false ‘anti-Semitism’ campaign represent white privilege and white racism in this society and the fact that the JSG have finally, belatedly, come on board suggests that they still don’t get it.  Opposition to anti-semitism is an establishment form of anti-racism.  It is an anti-racism entirely divorced from how society operates and is organised. It is a depoliticised form of racism, which substitutes difference for oppression and exploitation.  It counterposes the identity of White minorities like Jews to the very real oppression of migrants, refugees and students from Palestine.

It is no coincidence that those most affected by it have been Black members of the Labour Party and Black Connexions - people like Marlene Ellis and Marc Wadsworth.  Wadworth was set up at the Chakrbarti press conference by that disgusting State agent Ruth Smeeth MP.  

As Asa Winstanley notes in an article for Electronic Intifada, a 2009 US embassy cable from London, revealed by Chelsea Manning and published by Wikileaks, states that Smeeth is a source they should “strictly protect.”  Speaking to the Telegraph in 2011, Smeeth admitted to being at a breakfast meeting in the embassy but said “I have no recollection of saying what has been attributed to me. I would not consider myself to be a source for the US government.”  Perhaps not but clearly the US consider her a source!

There have been numerous Asian activists and councillors such as Cllr. Obaid Khan, who have been targeted as part of this witch hunt.  Yet JSG fails to acknowledge that the witch-hunt was racist and seems to ascribe to it benevolent albeit mistaken intentions.  Part of the reason for this is that they put Jewish people in Britain on the same pedestal as Black people when it comes to racism.  As part of the idea of not having a 'hierarchy of oppression' this results in there being no differences between the oppressed and oppressors.  All difference is oppression.

British Jews however are not the victims of racism or imperialism.  They are White and possessors of privilege in this society.  They are not subject to or victims of state racism in this society.  They are very marginal victims of fascist or far-Right groups and there are many examples of where Zionist activists openly work with far-Right individuals and groups despite their anti-Semitism.  I have pointed before to the collaboration between Jonathan Hoffman, the former co-Vice Chair of the Zionist Federation and the English Defence League.  

To use fake racism against Jews in order to perpetuate a very real racism directed at e.g. Palestinian students in this country is unforgivable.  It is also unforgivable that David Rosenberg on behalf of the JSG has treated the Jewish Labour Movement as some kind of counter culture cuddly Jewish group.  

As Chair of the Cable Street commemorations he clearly had a hand in the fact that the JLM had a speaker at these anti-fascist celebrations despite the lamentable role of the Zionist movement in 1936 at the Battle of Cable Street.  Most Zionist organisations supported the Board of Deputies position of opposition to the anti-fascist mobilisation, not least because they were part of the Board although not yet nominally in control of it.  The Labour  Zionists of Poalei Zion and Dror did not oppose the policy of not confronting the British Union of Fascists although a few Zionists were participants in the Jewish Peoples Council against Fascism and Anti-Semitism.

Yet when supporters of IJAN heckled the JLM speaker, Sarah Sackman, David criticised them not her.  Likewise his position on the JLM sponsored letter criticising Jonathan Arkush of the Board of Deputies for welcoming for Trump was entirely misplaced.  The JLM has a need to strike a radical pose as a way of legitimising their role in the witch hunt of anti-racists.  This so-called letter was a PR exercise.  It was a one-off. The JLM, which never officially endorsed it, has never called out the welcome by Israel Herzog of the Israeli Labour Party, its self-declared 'sister party' for Trump's election.  The JLM is a hostile, reactionary organisation, not an organisation of progressives.

The very fact that the Tory establishment has pioneered the acceptance of a definition of anti-Semitism that conflates anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism whilst demonising opposition to Israel as anti-Semitic, suggests that anti-Semitism in practice is a marginal form of prejudice in this society.  That is why it has become the false anti-racism of the Right, used to beat the real victims of racism such as Malaka Shwaikh, a student from Gaza, who is at Exeter University.  Malaka is the latest victim of this ‘anti-Semitism’ witch-hunt perpetrated by groups like the Campaign Against Anti-Semitism.

Although the JSG statement supporting Jackie Walker is welcome, it is unfortunate that it had to be dragged out of the JSG.  In particular the last sentence suggests that they resent having to do the right thing: 

‘We hope too that us sharing this information will dispel misinformation/conspiracy theories about our group that have been spread for malicious and dubious purposes, and which can only serve those who have a political interest in attacking and discrediting Jewish leftists.’

It is to be hoped that the statement supporting Jackie is the first and not the last and that the JSG doesn’t fail to protest Jewish racism too. 

Tony Greenstein

Jewish Socialists Group Statement on Jackie Walker and anti-Semitism 

The Jewish Socialists’ Group in its public statements, articles by members, and submission to the Chakrabarti Inquiry, has consistently opposed the false and distorted charges of antisemitism targeted at Labour members. We have decribed most of these charges as being weaponised by forces hostile to the Labour Party to damage Labour (especially its democratically elected leader, Jeremy Corbyn), and to undermine free speech by Labour Party members on the Israel/Palestine conflict.

We have acknowledged that there are a small number of cases of genuine antisemitism expressed by Labour party members that the Party must deal with firmly, but stated that the majority of cases we were aware of fell into the categories of being forthright expressions of support for Palestinian rights, which condemn Israeli government policy and aspects of Zionist ideology, and are not antisemitic; or Incidents where genuine critics of Israeli policy unintentionally blur distinctions between Jews and Zionists or between the Israeli government and Israeli people; or unknowingly borrow and apply traditional antisemitic tropes to Israel and its supporters. In such instances argument and education were far more appropriate responses than severe disciplinary measures such as expulsions, suspensions or bans. 

We expressed our support for the Chakrabarti Report based on the Inquiry, which we and many others made submissions to, especially with regard to: 

• its insistence that members against whom complaints are made are absolutely entitled to a transparent, fair and just process; 

• that free speech within the party must be protected, 

• and that conflicts and disagreements are to be approached primarily through education.

Last week the JSG made a submission to the Labour Party with regard to Jackie Walker’s case in which we called for her suspension to be lifted.

In that submission we explained that our group has a long record of opposing antisemitism and other forms of racism from whichever corner; that we reject the equation of anti-Zionism with antisemitism (and indeed acknowledged that certain forms of pro-Zionism sit happily with antisemitism);and reiterated the positions and principles above. 

We stated that we did not believe that Jackie Walker has been treated to a transparent, fair and just process and condemned the manner in which “evidence” against her was collected by secretly filming comments she made in an exploratory workshop, and presenting them in a manner where they are removed from their context, and open to distortion.

We stated that although there was no consensus within our group on the merits of Jackie Walker’s statements with regard to slavery, Holocaust Day commemorations, or the security requirements of Jewish schools,  and that her interventions did not necessarily reflect the tone in which we would comment on such matters, we feel that it is legitimate to discuss such issues.

We added that through our involvement in anti-racist/antifascist activism, we are aware of Jacqueline Walker’s impressive record in this sphere, especially with regard to her work against UKIP in Kent.

We hope our submission will help to bring about the right result at the hearing. We hope too that us sharing this information will dispel misinformation/conspiracy theories about our group that have been spread for malicious and dubious purposes, and which can only serve those who have a political interest in attacking and discrediting Jewish leftists. 

The Battle of Cable Street – When Anti-fascists Repelled The British Union of Fascists

The Day Satire Died - The Guardian Gets Mark Regev, Ambassador for the world’s most racist state to pay tribute

When the Jewish Chronicle, the Zionists and the Board of Deputies urged the Jewish workers not to confront the fascists - now Mark Regev is rewriting history

It is really unbelievable.  Who does the Guardian choose to write an article commemorating the Battle of Cable Street, one of the most famous days in the annals of the British Labour Movement when up to quarter of a million workers, including thousands of Jewish workers, sent the fascists packing?  The PR man for Netanyahu and now Israel's Liar-in-Chief in Britain, Mark Regev.  The man who night after night justified on TV the murderous bombing of Gaza two years ago when 2,200 Palestinian refugees were murdered, including 551 children.

Entrance to Cable St on Sunday afternoon, October 4, 1936... crowds stop Mosley's Blackshirts passing through [Tower Hamlets Archive picture]

The man whose career was spent justifying every last racist measure of Netanyahu – from banning the commemoration of the Nakba in 1948, the massacre and expulsion of ¾ million Palestinians to the exclusion of Arabs from Jewish towns under the Access to Communities legislation.

The Guardian's shameless article allowing Israel's Ambassador & apologist for genocide Mark Regev to rewrite history

It is a sign of the deep sickness at the 'liberal' Guardian that they could even think of carrying an article which tries blatantly to rewrite history.  The Board of Deputies of British Jews vehemently opposed the march.  It had a box printed in the Jewish Chronicle warning Jews to stay away from the march.  The Zionists had effectively taken over the Board of Deputies by 1933 as Neville Laski made his peace with the Zionists.

Today's march in the East End

This is an example of how even the most radical moments in our history are co-opted by the ruling class in order to blunt their political message.  In the process they allow the passage of time to dim our memory so that the real lessons, the need to fight against all forms of racism, are lost.  

Bill Fishman, one of the best-known historians and political campaigners in London’s East End, died at the age of 93.

 According to Regev's rewriting of history, the Zionist movement, which had worked hand in hand with the precursor of Oswald Moseley’s BUF, the British Brothers League, was somehow in the vanguard of opposition to the fascists.  The Zionists played no part in building opposition to the march.  That was the job of Jewish communists and socialists.  The Jewish Peoples Council contained a few dissident Zionists but to pretend that a handful of Zionist individuals constituted an alliance between the Labour movement and the Zionists is a shameless rewriting of history.

Prof Bill Fishman, 1921-2014, next to Nicholas Mosley, son of his former adversary Oswald Mosley, speaking at Toynbee Hall in 2006 on 70th anniverary of 'Battle of Cable Street'

What the Guardian could have done, was to run this piece by Bill Fishman, the late and great historian of East End Jewry that was printed in the Docklands and East London Advertiser ten years ago on the 70^th anniversary of Cable Street.

By 1936, Oswald Mosley’s party had been waging a hate campaign against Jews, communists and the Irish in the East End for more than two years, writes Bill Fishman.

Accusing Jews of taking ‘English’ jobs, Mosley’s elite bodyguard—the Blackshirts—terrorised Jewish stallholders in Petticoat Lane market, beat up Jews going home after synagogue and covered walls with anti-Semitic graffiti.

“Perish Judah” and “Death to the Jews” were scrawled all over the East End.

Copying the militaristic style of the fascist regimes in Germany, Italy and Spain, they carried out a reign of terror.

At that time, I was a member of the Labour Youth League and we heard that Mosley was planning a big rally in the East End on that Sunday in 1936, on October 4. We were told to get down to Gardiner’s Corner on the edge of the City.

It seemed like an act of solidarity because, on the same day, the Republicans in Spain were also preparing to defend Madrid against General Franco’s fascist nationalist forces.

Gardiner's Corner, Sunday, October 4, 1936... far left is stalled tram, in front of crowds blocking entrance to Whitechapel High Street [Tower Hamlets Archive picture]

I got off the 53 tram just after noon and there were already people marching and carrying banners proclaiming ‘No Pasaran’—the slogan we took from the Spanish Republicans which meant ‘They shall not pass.’

People were coming in from the side streets, marching towards Aldgate. There were so many that it took me about 25 minutes to get there.

I remember standing on the steps of the Whitechapel Art Gallery, watching Mosley arrive in a black open-top sports car. He was a playboy aristocrat and as glamorous as ever.

By this time, it was about 3.30pm. You could see Mosley—black-shirted himself—marching in front of about 3,000 Blackshirts and a sea of Union Jacks. It was as though he was the commander-in-chief of the army, with the Blackshirts in columns and a mass of police to protect them.

I had already seen him at a public meeting some months before. He had been standing on the back of a lorry parked outside the Salmon & Ball pub in Bethnal Green.

But at Gardiner’s Corner, Mosley encountered his first setback, thanks to a lone tram driver. I saw a tram pull up in the middle of the junction about 50 yards away from me—blocking the Blackshirts’ route. Then the driver got out and walked off. I found out later he was a member of the Communist Party.

I remember that, in contrast to the ugliness to come, the weather was beautiful, like a summer day. By mid-afternoon, the crowds had quickly swelled to more than 250,000, with some reports later suggesting that up to 500,000 people gathered there.

As the tension rose, we began chanting “1, 2, 3, 4, 5! We want Mosley—dead or alive!” and “They shall not pass!”

I was moved to tears to see bearded Jews and Irish Catholic dockers standing up to stop Mosley and shall never forget that as long as I live—how working-class people could get together to oppose the evil of fascism.

In a bid to keep the crowd away from the fascists, around 10,000 police officers, virtually every spare policeman in London and the South East, had been drafted in.

The police decided when the tram stopped and blocked the way to charge the crowd to disperse us. They were waving their truncheons, but we were so packed together, there was nowhere for us to go.

I could see police horses going up in the air because some kids in front of me were throwing marbles under their hooves. That made the police more hostile and they spent the next hour charging into us. Then, suddenly, people were waving to us from the back of the crowd.

The Communist Party had a system of loudspeaker vans and a command post with a phone and team of messengers from which to co-ordinate the action.

But they also had a secret weapon—a spy named Michael Faulkner, who was a medical student and communist sympathiser. Faulkner had infiltrated the Blackshirts.

When Mosley was halted at Gardiner’s Corner (today’s crossroads of Commercial Street, Whitechapel High Street and Commercial Road), police chief Sir Philip Game told him that the fascists could go another way, south through Royal Mint Street and Cable Street.

As Mosley was passing on instructions, Faulkner rushed to a phone kiosk near Aldgate Underground station and rang Phil Piratin, the Communist leader. Piratin told those in the loudspeaker vans to transmit the message—“Get down to Cable Street!”

The sheer weight of numbers meant it was a slow procession, but I got there in time to watch the battle.

I was young and afraid of what was basically a fight between the police and us, because we couldn’t get near the Blackshirts.

Cable Street is very narrow and there were three and four-storey houses where Irish dockers lived who quickly erected barricades of lorries piled with old mattresses and furniture.

Women in the houses hurled rotten vegetables, muck from chamber-pots and rubbish onto the police, who were struggling to dismantle some of the barricades.

The Zionist leader & first President of Israel defended the leader of the anti-Semitic British Brothers League, William Evans-Gordon MP - Regev 'forgot' to mention this

Things escalated again when the police sent ‘snatch squads’ into the crowd to nab supposed ringleaders. Organised groups of dockers hit back with stones and sticks, while making several ‘arrests’ themselves!

Indeed, there are some families in the East End who still have police helmets and batons as souvenirs!

Finally, with the area in turmoil and the protesters at fever pitch, Sir Philip Game told Mosley that he would have to abandon the march, fearing too much bloodshed. He ordered Mosley to turn back and march through the deserted City of London.

When the news filtered through, people went mad and what had been a wild protest became a massive victory party, with thousands of people dancing in the streets.

Once the dust settled, it was found that 150 protesters had been arrested, with some of them being severely beaten once in custody. In all, there were around 100 injuries, including police officers.

Oswald Mosley’s popularity began to wane, after his setback in Cable Street.

The Government hurried through laws banning political parties from wearing military-style uniforms, depriving them of both menace and allure.

Stanley Baldwin’s Tory government passed the Public Order Act, which gave the police the power to ban ‘provocative’ marches.

Then, during the Second World War, Mosley and his wife Lady Diana Mitford were interned as a threat to national security. Years in the political wilderness followed before his death in 1980.

Although a lot of fascists still lived in the East End following the Cable Street victory, never again would the ideology be so popular.

Jews, communists, Irish and English men and women rose up simply because they did not want extremism.

Years later, during my first teaching job in Bethnal Green, a parent came up and said: “My son speaks very highly of you. I have to apologise, I was a fascist and supported Mosley. Now I realise how wrong you can be.”

There was redemption in that and it moved me. It made me realise how much things were changing even then.

I have sent a letter into the Guardian but I suspect that they will prefer to pass silently over this shameful episode.

Dear Sir or Madam,

Clearly satire has died.  Mark Regev’s article ‘Remember Cable Street, when the labour movement and Zionists were allies’ was an exercise in the rewriting of history.  The Board of Deputies of British Jews and the British Zionist movement under Chaim Weizmann were implacably opposed to the anti-fascist mobilisation at Cable Street. 

On 2^nd October 1936, the Board placed a warning notice in the Jewish Chronicle entitled ‘Urgent Warning – Keep Away’.  It read ‘Jews are urgently warned to keep away from the route of the Blackshirt march’. 

The anti-fascist mobilisation was organised by Jewish communists and socialists and the Jewish Peoples Council.  The Zionists played no part in the mobilisation.  The idea that English Zionism, which had allied with the anti-Semitic opponents of Jewish immigration in the Conservative Party, would support physical opposition to the BUF is laughable.

Mark Regev stands in opposition to everything the demonstrators at Cable Street represented.  He is Ambassador for the most racist regime in the world, a state that maintains a brutal military occupation in the West Bank, which bombs refugees in Gaza and which demonises Israel’s own Palestinian citizens. 

The lessons we should remember are those of the historian of East End Jewry, William Fishman who wrote that:

‘“We were all side by side. I was moved to tears to see bearded Jews and Irish Catholic dockers standing up to stop Mosley. I shall never forget that for as long as I live, how working-class people could stand together to oppose the evil of racism.” [East London Advertiser 4.10.06]

Yours faithfully,

Tony Greenstein 

Open Letter to Jeremy Corbyn on Witch-hunt as McDonnell Tacks to the Right

Jeremy - you've been accused of false 'anti-Semitism' - why do you keep silent when I am suspended for the same 'crime'?

Is John McDonnell the new Stafford Cripps?

And don't support an attack on the Left

John McDonnell advises socialists to trust the Board of Deputies of British Jews - the same Board that opposed Jewish resistance in the 1930's and which urges uncritical support of Israel now

 As people will know, I was suspended for making comments, the nature of which were not divulged to me.  The reasons for my suspension were however leaked to that Labour supporting papers, The Daily Telegraph and last Saturday and The Times.

I have therefore written an Open Letter to Corbyn asking him to lift my suspension and instead suspend John Stolliday, the Labour apparatchik who was responsible for the leak to the Telegraph.

Morris Beckman of the '45  Group which physically destroyed the Mosleyites after the war.  They were ignored by the Board of Deputies

It is also extremely disappointing that the new 'Iron Chancellor' who is trapped in the same pledge to  eliminate Britain's fiscal deficit as George Osborne has now conceded, in an interview with the BBC's Andrew Marr, that the issue of anti-Semitism should be left to the Board of Deputies of British Jews.  'I believe that what we should do is take the advice of the British Board of Deputies and our other Jewish friends as well....'

The real anti-Semites who the Board of Deputies ignore - with an Israeli flag in one hand and Hitler salutes on the other

The Board of Deputies of British Jews is a 100% Zionist body, based on synagogue representation but not elected by British Jews, that has consistently depicted support for the Palestinians and opposition to Zionism as anti-Semitism.

The Jewish Peoples Council helped organise the Battle of Cable Street when Moseley was prevented from marching through the Jewish East End by 100,000 people.  The Board of Deputies told Jews to ignore them and stay at home

What is just as bad is that when it comes to genuine anti-Semitism the  Board of Deputies has always distinguished itself by its cringing and servile attitude.  In 1936 it famously opposed the mobilisation of Jews against Oswald Moseley's British Union of Fascists in the Battle of Cable Street in London' East End.  It has always been a bourgeois Jewish institution that put the needs of capitalism above those of Jews.  The Jewish Peoples Council that organised the opposition to Moseley, stormed the Board of Deputies office in response to their scabbing.  

Board of Deputies advice to Jews in the 1930's - Keep Away from the Fascists -  Don't Oppose Them - Leave it to the anti-Semitic London Police Force - thousands of Jews ignored them - McDonnell wants us to agree with them

In the 1970's when the fight against the National Front was at its height, the Board of Deputies attacked the Anti-Nazi League, which destroyed the NF as a credible threat, in preference to the fascists.  McDonnell's ignorance is inexcusable.

Having resiled from his earlier support for Irish Republicanism, McDonnell is now resiling from support for the Palestinians.  Going along with false accusations of 'anti-Semitism' only aids those who are genuinely anti-Semitic.  When Zionists cry wolf about anti-Semitism, people then begin to have genuine difficulties discerning the real thing.  This is what we found when we tried to remove Gilad Atzmon from the Palestine solidarity movement.  Time after time I was told, that accusations of anti-Semitism are what Zionists always say.  I was even called a Zionist by those who had become so utterly confused.

Letter in Jewish Chronicle concerning the Board of Deputies

Zionism, having never fought anti-Semitism, doesn't care if they aid the real anti-Semites.  After all they have demonstrated alongside anti-Semites outside Ahava.  The BNP and EDL are open in their support of Israel.  

Socialists however should be careful to make the distinction between anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism.  It isn't that difficult.

Tony Greenstein

Labour Party membership number: L1435959

Monday, 04 April 2016

To:      Jeremy Corbyn,

Leader of the Labour Party

Dear Jeremy,

As you may be aware, I have been suspended from membership of the Labour Party on the basis of comments which it is alleged I have made.  I have not been informed as to the nature of these comments, the allegations pertaining to them or the identity of the complainant(s).

Despite writing twice to John Stolliday of the Constitutional/Compliance Unit and both speaking and writing to the local Regional Organiser, Harry Gregson, I have been refused access to any details concerning the reasons for my suspension.

You can imagine therefore my surprise when this information surfaced in Saturday’s Daily Telegraph and Times, with the Telegraph boasting of having been given access to this information.  From my contact with the Compliance Unit and Gregson, I am already aware that they have little appreciation or understanding of the meaning of natural justice.

The behaviour of the Compliance Unit in leaking information concerning my suspension, when I have been refused access to the same information, is both outrageous and unfair.  I have written to Stolliday to say that in my opinion he should be suspended forthwith for gross misconduct pending an inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the leaking of this information.  I attach a copy of my letter.

The allegations of anti-Semitism which have been made against me are, to put it bluntly, crap.  They are little from the allegations of anti-Semitism which were made against you over the summer.  Having known me for over 30 years and having both spoken on the same platform on numerous occasions, I am sure you will confirm that I am an anti-Zionist and supporter of the Palestinians, not an anti-Semite.  

Support for  the Palestinians and opposition to Zionism are not the same as anti-Semitism.  I would have hoped that both you and John McDonnell would have made that distinction when similar allegations were made against Oxford University Labour Club for having supported Israel Apartheid Week.  Anti-Zionism is about opposition to the political movement that formed the State of Israel, a state which is Jewish only in so far as Jews have privileges over non-Jews.  Anti-Semitism is about hatred of, discrimination and violence against and conspiracy theories about Jews as Jews.

The reason that your Zionist detractors will never be satisfied with your assurances that you do not tolerate anti-Semitism in the Labour Party is because you are speaking a different language.  Their definition of anti-Semitism is not that which is commonly understood.  The Zionist definition of anti-Semitism, which is sometimes called 'new anti-Semitism' is about opposition to the racist Israeli state, its policies and practices.  That is why no amount of appeasement of Zionist groups will have the slightest effect. 

Indeed it is quite possible to be both anti-Semitic in the racist sense and pro-Zionist.  One of your main accusers, the editor of the Jewish Chronicle, Stephen Pollard, whilst attacking you as anti-Semitic was more than happy to describe Michal Kaminiski, the anti-Semitic MEP for Poland’s Law & Justice Party, as ‘one of the greatest friends to the Jews’ Guardian 9 October 2009 http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2009/oct/09/michal-kaminski-antisemitism. The BNP and English Defence League are both pro-Zionist and holocaust deniers.

I am writing to you in order that action will be taken over this leak of information, which I believe has also happened in other cases.  The Compliance Unit should be immediately disbanded and Stolliday should be relieved of his position - either for incompetence or malevolence.  The purpose of leaking this information isn’t simply to prejudice my position but to weak your own position as Leader of the Party

The choice of the Daily Telegraph as the newspaper to leak to speaks volumes.  I trust that all those years of making speeches condemning witch-hunts and defending the Palestinians won't disappear into a black hole.

With best wishes,

Tony Greenstein